Staff Spotlight: Rebecca Kightlinger

Staff Spotlight: Rebecca Kightlinger

Interview


What do you write?

I write fiction—right now I’m writing a series about a family of women healers. While set in the real world of thir­teenth-century Corn­wall, the story fea­tures mys­ti­cal under­pin­nings and hints of magic. Book One, Megge of Bury Down, is sched­uled for release on Feb­ru­ary 1. Books two and three are well underway.

Is there an author or artist who has most pro­found­ly influ­enced your work?As strange as it may seem, the person who most con­sis­tent­ly influ­ences my day-to-day writing—or at least my editing and revising—is remem­bered less as a writer than as a mag­a­zine founder: Harold Ross, of The New Yorker.

Perhaps because his objec­tions tar­get­ed basic details many authors assumed were there but weren’t, and because his wording was so blunt, it’s Ross’s voice that sounds in my ear as I revise. “You say he stood up. But we don’t see him sitting down. How can he get up if he wasn’t sitting down in the first place?”

Before exam­in­ing my writing for mechan­i­cal errors and infe­lic­i­ties of grammar and syntax, I always give it the Harold Ross treat­ment: watch­ing each scene play out as he might, with his atten­tion to detail, to find and revise incon­sis­ten­cies in setting, char­ac­ter­i­za­tion, and action.

Why did you choose Stonecoast?

I was attract­ed by Stonecoast’s diverse, involved faculty, its inspired stu­dents, and the atmos­phere of the Stone House, which appeared (and was!) con­ducive to study, thought, and camaraderie.

What is your favorite Stonecoast memory?

The hubbub in the Stone House on cold winter morn­ings. Getting coffee and firing up the space heaters before the morning workshops.

What do you hope to accom­plish in the future?

I hope to build a full pro­fes­sion as a writer. I’ve always believed that a true pro­fes­sion con­sists of three parts: pro­vid­ing a product or service that requires the mastery of a set of skills through edu­ca­tion and relent­less prac­tice; sharing exper­tise through con­sul­ta­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion; and teach­ing those enter­ing the pro­fes­sion or further honing their skills.

Stonecoast has given me the first part: a strong foun­da­tion for pro­duc­ing good writing; my pub­lish­er has given me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to share my work with readers. The Nation­al Book Critics Circle, His­tor­i­cal Novels ReviewNew England Review, and Stonecoast Review have given me the second part: judging fiction short­list­ed for nation­al recog­ni­tion, review­ing new his­tor­i­cal fiction, weigh­ing in on fiction sub­mis­sions, and copy editing pieces select­ed for publication.

For the third part of this pro­fes­sion, teach­ing, I would someday like to lead fiction work­shops that offer writers a safe, if rig­or­ous, milieu in which to present their work for eval­u­a­tion and dis­cus­sion and to learn from other writers.

If you could have written one book, story, or poem that already exists, which would you choose?

William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.


Featured Work

The fol­low­ing is an excerpt of Rebecca’s new book, Megge of Bury Down, avail­able now.


Rebecca Kightlinger earned her MFA at the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program. A member of the Nation­al Book Critics Circle, she reviews novels for the His­tor­i­cal Novels Review, reads fiction sub­mis­sions for New England Review and Stonecoast Review, and copy edits pieces accept­ed for pub­li­ca­tion in Stonecoast Review.

In her twenty years of medical prac­tice as an Obste­tri­cian Gyne­col­o­gist, Rebecca had the priv­i­lege of caring for the women of Penn­syl­va­nia, Vir­ginia, and Guyana.

She and her husband live in north­west­ern Penn­syl­va­nia with their pets: three comical dogs, three elegant cats, and a delight­ful little rooster named Ollie.



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